Recreating a childhood fave but making it better! These colorful, crunchy, and not-too-sweet fruit loops are made with only real food and super simple ingredients, high in protein, and free of gluten, sugar, or artificial dyes.
Keep the convenience and nostalgia of our childhood breakfasts but out with all the unnecessary chemicals! Cereal is such a nice little invention, it's so fun to eat for any time of the day, however, it's such a shame that all the boxed cereals on a shelf are packed full of chemicals and excessive amounts of refined sugar.
And if we really think about it, the main target audience of these colorful sugary crunchy treats are children, and isn't it just so evil that the food made intentionally to entice kids is almost always the worst?! Always full of sugar, heavy seasonings, artificial dyes, preservatives...
So I made these vibrant, colorful, crunchy fruit loops with only simple whole-food ingredients like old-fashioned rolled oats and arrowroot powder, and I colored them with fruit and vegetable powders. You can make them into any flavors and colors you like with different freeze-dried fruit powders!
Regarding cooking time, yes they can be a bit "time-consuming" to make mostly on account of how small they are and that you need to make a lot of them individually. But think of it this way, we never thought it was "too much work" when we played with playdough as kids rights? Well, this is just as fun! And after all the playtime, we actually now get to eat the fruit of our labor! Our health and well-being deserve a little time and effort from us.
INGREDIENTS:
2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup arrowroot powder
1 scoop protein powder (30 g)
2 tablespoon olive oil, or melted coconut oil
1/2 cup soy milk
2 - 3 tablespoon monk fruit extract, adjust based on whether your protein powder is already sweetened
2 teaspoon freeze dried strawberry powder
2 teaspoon matcha powder
2 teaspoon orange powder
1 teaspoon blue spirulina powder
TO MAKE:
- Blend the oats till it becomes a refined powder;
- In a mixing bowl, combine oat flour, arrowroot powder, protein powder, olive oil, mok fruit, and soy milk, bring everything into a dough;
- Divide the dough into equal four pieces, add each powder to each portion, and knead the powder fully into the dough till the color is spread evenly;
- Cover the rest of the dough portions as you work on each one;
- Take one piece of dough, roll it out into a 1/3 - 1/4 inch thick sheet between two pieces of parchment paper;
- Use a pipping bag tip to cut the shapes out, use the bigger opening to cut out a circle, then use the smaller tip to poke a hole in the center;
- Once you cut out all the circles you can from the sheet, knead the leftover sheet back into a dough, roll it out again, and cut, repeat with each colored dough;
- Preheat the oven to 350°F;
- Once you finish making all the loops, transfer them onto a lined baking sheet;
- Bake for 6 - 8 minutes, then turn off the oven, and let them dry out a bit more in the oven for 10 minutes;
- Take them out and let them cool down completely;
- Serve with more soy milk, or other plant milk of choice, enjoy!
